1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a supply magazine for sheets in a stack, which are separated from the upper side of the stack by a sheet-removal device of a copier and fed out through a recess in an end wall of the supply magazine at the removal side thereof, the supply magazine comprising a cover associated with the upper side of the sheet stack and not covering the engagement area of the sheet-removal device, and a pressure device associated with the lower side of the sheet stack and urging the stack by spring force into contact with the sheet-removal device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the case of a supply magazine of the above type which is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,427 (issued Aug. 22, 1978, in the name of Shigehiro et al.), hold-down elements for the corners are arranged on the magazine in the area of sheet removal, the hold-down elements resting on the stack surface at the two ends of the front longitudinal side thereof where the sheets are removed. These hold-down elements serve for separating the uppermost sheet from the remaining stack when a sheet is to be removed. Such hold-down elements functions reliably only if the sheet stack, when loaded into the supply magazine, is shifted below them very carefully. For this purpose the sheet stack to be loaded along with its pressure device has to be depressed until the front side of the sheet stack can be shifted below the hold-down elements. But even if the hold-down elements rest on the sheet stack as required it has to be ensured that they do not become jammed by the stack but remain freely movable because otherwise functional reliability cannot be ensured. Although the hold-down elements exert a certain holding force on the front area of the sheet stack such force is not enough to prevent the sheet stack from slipping out of the supply magazine in the sheet-removal area if the supply magazine is brought into an inclined position, e.g. when it is inserted into a copier or removed therefrom. In the case of this known supply magazine the danger of the sheets slipping out results in particular from the fact that such hold-down elements cannot exert any influence on the front middle area of the upper side of the sheet stack whereby the sheet stack can curve and thus becomes unstable. Proper loading of a sheet stack into such a supply magazine requires great care and thus can only be carried out by specially trained staff.